Third Sunday after Epiphany – 2026
Matthew 4:12-25
Marian Free
In the name of God who is all around us – if only we would pay attention. Amen.
The fourth verse of the poem “Sometimes” by Mary Oliver reads:
“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”[1]
Today we are quick to criticise our youth (or chastise ourselves) for spending too much time on our devices – phones, tablets, computers – and not enough time noticing, socialising, reading or whatever else we deem they/we are missing out on. It may be true that modern technology has made it easier to communicate, to seek out information or to be entertained, but I would argue that those of us with leisure to do so have always been easily distracted, have always wanted to be entertained and have often failed to notice what is right in front of us. Why else would the saying: “Take time to smell the roses” be used so often.
We may not always have had devices, but we have always had other excuses for not paying attention. In fact, sometimes we make not paying attention a virtue. I am just too busy; my children/parents/work need me; if I don’t do it (cook/clean/teach) who else will and so on?
Interestingly, both John the Baptist and Jesus begin their ministry by calling for repentance: “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Where? How? What is this kingdom and why should we “repent”?
As I prepared for this week’s sermon two reflections caught my attention and made me think very differently about Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom, his demand for repentance and his calling of the disciples. Even though they make the same sort of argument I’d like to quote from both – partly because the thought is new to me as well.
The first reflection comes from the sermon commentary in The Christian Century which lands in my email box each week. In it, Christine Chakoain points out that Jesus calls for a redirection of priorities. Reflecting on repentance she writes: “‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.’ What,” she asks, “if Jesus doesn’t want us to miss the kingdom that could be right here, right now, if we just focused on the things that really matter? What if he’s calling us to set down what’s getting in our way?”
In his comment on this week’s gospel Archbishop Jeremy Greaves stated that: “When Jesus announces that the kingdom of God has come near It is not an abstract theology statement. It is a declaration about God’s presence here and now. It is not somewhere we escape to nor simply a promise of something in the future. It is God’s life breaking into ordinary human existence – in fishing boats and on dusty roads among the anxious the hopeful and the overlooked. When Jesus heals, gathers and teaches, we get a glimpse of what God’s reign looks like: wounds attended, dignity restored, communities reconciled.
To repent then, is to turn towards this reality, to realign our lives with God’s compassion and justice.”[2]
When I preached about John the Baptist recently, I reminded you that the Greek word “metanoia” which we translate as “repent”, doesn’t mean to be sorry, but to turn around, to turn our lives to face the kingdom, to turn away from the world and towards God. Chakoain and Greaves make this point even more clearly. To repent is to pay attention to the kingdom moments in the present to see that God is already present and at work among us. Jesus calls us to “repent”, to pay attention to what is happening around us. Jesus does not want us to miss out.
This extraordinary (to me) insight makes sense of both the Synoptic and the Johannine versions of Jesus’ calling of the first disciples. It explains why Peter and Andrew, James and John were so willing to abandon their livelihood (and possibly those who depended on them) to follow Jesus and why Andrew and the other disciple of John left him to see where Jesus was staying. They didn’t “repent” in the way that we normally understand that word (nor did Jesus ask them to). They were already paying attention and because they were paying attention, they saw Jesus for who he was, somehow, they understood that in Jesus the kingdom was breaking through and they simply could not wait to be part of it. They did not abandon their master (in the case of Andrew and the other of John’s disciples) nor did they give up their trade (in the case of Peter and Andrew, James and John) for a random stranger. They left everything behind because, in Jesus they recognised that the “kingdom of God” was already here.
Archbishop Jeremy contended that: “The nearness of the kingdom is both comfort and calling: comfort, because God is closer than we imagine; calling, because we are invited to participate.”
Jesus announces the nearness of the kingdom and this is why Jesus’ public ministry begins with a call to: “repent”. Jesus is not calling us to consider our worthiness for the kingdom or not, rather Jesus is anxious that if we don’t pay attention, if we don’t open our eyes to the presence of God (in him and in the world) that we will miss out, that we won’t see God already working among us, the kingdom already beginning to be present.
The kingdom of God has come near: “Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it.”
Open your eyes, your minds and your hearts. Don’t miss out!
[1] https://readalittlepoetry.com/2014/09/10/sometimes-by-mary-oliver/
[2] For the full recording go here: https://anglicanfocus.org.au/2026/01/09/sundayiscoming-reflection-25-january-2026/
Swallowsrest 